Italy has had nearly 5,000 bit since the start of the coronavirus epidemic, and on Saturday 21st March 2020, it had its deadliest day.
The coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage Italy, where it killed almost 800 people on Saturday, March 21, 2020, in 24 hours, and the government has ordered the cessation of all production activity other than that “strictly necessary”.
“The decision adopted by the government is to close all productive activity across the territory that is not strictly necessary, crucial, essential to guarantee goods and services,” said Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in a televised speech late in the day. the night.
In diretta da Palazzo Chigi: https://t.co/joORwHHeYi
— Giuseppe Conte (@GiuseppeConteIT) March 21, 2020
He nevertheless assured that grocery stores and pharmacies will remain open, without detailing the list of “essential” activities.
“We are going to slow down the country’s productive engine but we are not going to stop it,” he said.
Nearly 5,000 dead
In one month, 4,825 deaths were recorded, including more than 3,095 in Lombardy alone, the Milan region, the country’s economic lung. According to the report of the civil security on Saturday, in the last 24 hours nearly 800 people have been killed by the disease, a new daily record.
This is appalling: in the world before the pandemic, just under 1,800 Italians died every day; Lombardy deplores more than 300 coronavirus deaths per million inhabitants when the second most affected country in proportion to its population, Spain, has a rate of less than 30 per million.
When he decreed on the evening of March 9 a ban on all rallies and a strict restriction on travel, the Prime Minister expected visible results within two weeks, that is, in the middle of next week. He also said that the Italian productive apparatus must continue to function.
Submerged sanitation system
But faced with constantly increasing balance sheets (more than 53,000 cases in all, an increase of 6,500 in 24 hours), and when the health system was overwhelmed, he was faced with increasing pressure from the North to take more drastic measures.
According to the Italian media, faced with a “situation (which) worsens”, the governor of Lombardy, Attilio Fontana, has also decided on new restrictive measures which should come into force on Sunday, until April 15th.
These provide in particular for the cessation of construction sites and craft activities unrelated to essential industries or the prohibition of playing sports outdoors, even alone.
The open weekly markets will also be closed and, in pharmacies or supermarkets, customers will be subject to temperature control.
“Necessary and inevitable measures. Finally! Said Fontana in response to the measures announced by the Prime Minister.
“Close everything”
“The time has come to stop, but to really do it,” Bergamo Mayor Giorgio Gori and Province President Gianfranco Gafforelli had previously written to Mr. Conte, saying the situation “now looks like a tragedy.” ».
In Brescia, the sector most affected with Bergamo, Sergio Cattaneo, head of the cardiopulmonary resuscitation service at the city’s main hospital, warns that “there is no longer any place for intensive therapy in Lombardy”. “My call to the institutions is as follows:” Close everything “,” he said.
” The situation is serious. In the coming days, it will be dramatic, ”also warns the order of doctors in Piedmont, the Turin region, where the toll is rising rapidly (238 dead).
According to the latest figures from the Higher Institute of Health (ISS), the average age of death is 78 and a half, only 1.1% is under 50 and almost 99% suffered from at least one other pathology, heart failure, diabetes and chronic renal failure in particular.
The boss of the ISS, Silvio Brusaferro, regrets that his compatriots “have not yet taken the danger that circulates seriously enough”: “Taking the excuse of taking two steps (outside), we get together. Two steps yes, but alone, not together. “
Cuba, Egypt, China…
The head of civil protection, Angelo Borrelli, found it difficult to reinforce the measures imposed on the 60 million Italians: “Beyond that is the total closure of the country. How can you live if you can’t do your shopping, if food doesn’t arrive in supermarkets? “
He welcomed international solidarity, with the arrival on Saturday in Milan of fifty Cuban doctors. According to the Italian agency Ansa, which quotes sources at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, more than three million masks will arrive from China, Egypt, Russia and India.
“The curve goes up,” acknowledged Angelo Borrelli. But the impact of government measures will be “in the coming days,” he promised. “It will be alleviated if the behaviors” are not up to par with the issue, however, warned the manager.
“We know that we are asking for sacrifices, and that they are very important. But they are essential if we are to beat this coronavirus, “urged Health Minister Roberto Speranza.
